How do people perceive their own social status?

Socioeconomic Status (SES) is closely associated with well-being and health outcomes, but assessing SES via self-report can be difficult and, at times, invasive. Many people may not know or want to report their income and education level. The MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status instead provides a way to measure an individual’s personal impression of their social standing without having to ask questions about one’s objective income and education level. Subjective social status (SSS), like SES, is very predictive of health and well-being.

Resources

• Demakakos, P., Nazroo, J., Breeze, E., & Marmot, M. (2008). Socioeconomic status and health: The role of subjective social status. Social Science & Medicine, 67(2), 330-340.
• Operario, D., Adler, N. E., & Williams, D. R. (2004). Subjective social status: Reliability and predictive utility for global health. Psychology & Health, 19(2), 237-246.
• MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status – Adult Version. (n.d.). https://sparqtools.org/mobility-measure/macarthur-scale-of-subjective-social-status-adult-version/

Parameters
This survey cannot be tweaked.

What data is collected? How is it scored?
The following variables are recorded:

• MASSS_country
• MASSS_community

This survey consists of two questions, each with a 9-point likert scale (1 = "Very top of the ladder" , 2 = "Near the top of the ladder", 3 = "Pretty far above the middle of the ladder", 4 = "Just above the middle of the ladder", 5 = "Middle of the ladder", 6 = "Just below the middle of the ladder", 7 = "Pretty far below the middle of the ladder", 8 = "Near the bottom of the ladder", and 9 ="Very bottom of the ladder"). The score for each question is recorded in the data, with no extra calculation.